Ableton Forum

First off, I'm pretty new to Ableton (Live Lite 8 version) and mainly I use it just as a MIDI soft synth for my MPK mini. I know about the arpeggiator effect, but I can't seem to figure out the best way to get a short choppy sound with any instruments. Trying to put a bit of a mute in between the returning notes. Just looking for any tweak/setup suggestions anybody might have.

Thanks.

EDIT: This song kind of pulls off what I'm looking to do.

best if you link to an example for ppl to hear and dissect

I've been racking my brain trying to think of a really good example of this. I only know of a few songs that have this effect. This song kind of pulls off what I'm looking to do, but that was more of a production effect than a synth effect. This is something I tend to come across more in dubstep songs than any other genre I can think of.

Sorry if that doesn't help enough yet. I'm going to keep looking.

beat repeat as far as Live native FX go, but i hate beat repeat, someone who likes it will have to go into that one

i like d-blue glitch (free vst) for stuff like that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCgENwOytuA

+ experimentation

From the video tutorials I just watched, I don't think beat repeat is going to do what I want it to. I'm not using a beat loop. I'm using Live like a MIDI soft synth, so just a MIDI in-audio out setup. I'm trying to setup my MIDI keyboard to produce a chopped up effect when I press a key/note. For some reason, I think this may be achieved with a possible mix of the arpeggriator and a gate effect, but my experiments haven't bore any fruit yet.

OK, I'll put it this way: I can't figure out how to use beat repeat with a MIDI instrument. I've spent what free time I've had the last couple days googling this. I found some article on how to use beat repeat with a MIDI controller for live performances, bit it's not meant for my purpose. This Ableton forums post here is the best I could come up with. But the note length presets I've found don't seem to be helping either.

I'm still thinking there's gotta be a way to pull this effect off. Just trying to get some muting in between notes so it sounds chopped up when I play a note on my keyboard. Any other ideas or something I'm missing?

That is a gating effect. There are a few ways to do it. Beat repeat at small interval with volume set to zero. Autopan set with phase set to zero. Automated clip volume (easier to get a rhythm), side chained Gate effect (tightness may vary). Of for instance, some square lfo's automating filter or amp (adding the combination of an envelope to say, the filter, would give it extra movement)

Keep in mind that the extra noise from crashes and stuff enhance the effect. Possibly even some kind of phaser or filter effect. To give it movement during each blip of the gating.

just tested Glitch as effect, works great , use the retrigger mode and with the right sample or synth it sounds just like your example

Beat Repeat. Or chop things up in a loop in arrangement view. Or use an automatic glitching machine (lots of advanced Ableton concepts shown here):

Automatic Glitching Machine – Create Complex Glitches Quickly (1 hour!)

sidechaining the gate effect will probably yield the best results and fairly easy.

Sorry to keep asking about this, but what everybody tells me to try is either not doing what I'm looking for or I'm just too ignorant to figure out the parameters. Are there any videos on how to do this with a MIDI instrument setup? When I try to search for a chop effect tutorial, the results are mostly sample chopping.

If anything, could anybody just lay it out for me on how to achieve this setup? It can be taken to PMs. I actually don't want to keep to clogging up this forum with my lack of knowledge of Ableton.

Thanks. And once again, sorry I'm not understanding what I have to do here.

Try this:
Add a Beat Repeat. Make sure it is set to 'Ins'. Set Volume to -inf.(volume at -inf is the crucial part) grid to 1/16. Chance at 100%.

Have it off. Play stuff on keys and have a drum loop playing. Set the Interval. Maybe 1/4. Turn the effect On. That should sound similar. You can also change the Interval to a tighter value.

I agree with Vios. Do it in arrangement view. Freeze your MIDI track or record out the audio then manually chop, transpose, repeat, and reverse the audio as much as you want.

A lot of plugins have gate and stutter effects, such as izotope's stutteredit, along with a couple of the sugar byte's products.. like artillery 2 or effectrix.

I prefer these methods cause you can trigger them with midi notes on a keyboard or controller in a punch-in momentary style with minimal setup and maximum variation. Which is a lot more fun to me than chopping up manually or getting a limited sound from a beat repeat or an envelope modulation.

infernal.machine wrote:A lot of plugins have gate and stutter effects, such as izotope's stutteredit, along with a couple of the sugar byte's products.. like artillery 2 or effectrix.

I prefer these methods cause you can trigger them with midi notes on a keyboard or controller in a punch-in momentary style with minimal setup and maximum variation. Which is a lot more fun to me than chopping up manually or getting a limited sound from a beat repeat or an envelope modulation.

That's true it's really nice to play off a key - but - Stutter edit, artillery 2 etc. cost more money.

Quite a lot of extra dosh for a gate!

But you can get quite a good one with a volume pattern in clip - unlink it and loop it on 1 bar then you don't have to edit 8 bars worth.

The thing I don't like with side-chaining is that you have to have your kick playing all the time otherwise the gate goes off.

And then in order to silence your kick track you must use automation which is a pain...